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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26237587">And I am my brother's keeper</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf'>tigriswolf</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>comment_fic drabbles [324]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Codependency, Codependent Winchesters (Supernatural), F/M, M/M, POV Outsider, Vampires, Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:07:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,746</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26237587</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The night it all ends, Ellen greets Dean and Sam with a smile.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andrea Kormos/Benny Lafitte, Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>comment_fic drabbles [324]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/27032</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bite Sized Bits of Fic</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. in the beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title: And I am my brother’s keeper<br/>Disclaimer: not my characters<br/>Warnings: AU where Dean&amp;Sam aren’t hunters; death; violence; incest; unhealthy codependency; outside pov<br/>Pairings: Dean/Sam<br/>Wordcount: 1745<br/>Point of view: third<br/>Prompts: Supernatural, Sam Winchester - Searching for Dean ; Supernatural, Gen. Benny the Southern hunter lost in purgatory, Dean the cocky, dangerous vampire. ; Supernatural, Dean + Sam Winchester, at first no one knows what to make of the newcomers. Not with their dark eyes and withdrawn posture. They read dangerous: predatory.</p><p> </p><p>Note: if this looks a bit familiar, that's 'cause it lived in my Unfinished anthology for awhile. but after a reread, i realized it's actually done so i cleaned it up, made a couple edits, and am now posting it as its own story.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>What hunters don't know about vampires could fill tomes, but perhaps the most important is this: once vampires mate, they have a shadow sense of each other. </p><p>What hunters don’t know about witches could fill even more tomes, but perhaps the most important is this: witches can have soulmates, just like any being with a soul.</p><p>.</p><p>Nearly a millennium ago, a young witch's older brother was turned by a vampire. Even in his panicked frenzy, the older brother never threatened the witch, though he slaughtered his way through their village, including their parents. Once the bloodlust abated enough for rational thought, the newly-risen vampire sank to his knees at his younger brother's feet and begged for absolution. </p><p>The witch had no training; his mother had ordered him to hide his power, fearful of retribution from frightened neighbors: the Church had begun to take root in their village, burning out the Old Way. But with everyone else dead, the young witch clung to his brother and let his magic do as it willed. </p><p>The witch’s magic bound them together, which caused them to share each other abilities: the vampire was given the slightest touch of magic and he aged with his younger brother, and the witch had just a touch of the vampire’s speed and senses. </p><p>For almost a thousand years, the two wandered the world, aging so slowly neither noticed until another decade passed. Better nutrition than they could've ever gotten in their birth-age and magic ensured they grew broader and stronger than they would've been.</p><p>Quite a few of the monster legends across Europe were because of them. </p><p> </p><p>.</p><p>Every century, the vampire chose new names for them.  The witch sometimes scoffed and chose another for himself, but he usually didn’t overmuch care. </p><p>After Y2K didn’t end the world, the vampire named himself Dean and his younger brother Sammy.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sam</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sam feels it when the hunters take Dean, when Dean passes from this world to the next. Because they're mated, because their souls are bound, Sam feels the <i>tear</i> when Dean dies. </p><p>His rage is excruciating for the world around him. </p><p>.</p><p>Research and torture lead him to a mythical ritual to open Purgatory's gate. It's a tale he remembers from the sire of Dean's sire, the last attempt of an ancient creature to earn mercy. In those days, neither of them had mercy to spare.</p><p>Dean's body is preserved in the most tightly-warded room in their sanctuary, and the families of the hunters who killed him are in stasis, waiting for Dean to drain them. </p><p>The ritual will cost ten lives, a sacrifice willingly given by those who have never caused harm. Sam lets the book drop as he closes his eyes. </p><p>He'd sacrifice whatever it took, but threats will not provide <i>willing</i> sacrifices, and those who have never caused harm could only be very young. If the ritual rejects the sacrifices, it'll cause a backlash on the other end, and that is a risk Sam will not take. </p><p>So there has to be another way. </p><p>He'll find it. And when he has his brother back, the other half of his soul, he'll make the world bleed for every moment they spent apart.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Benny</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You want to ride me out of Purgatory?" Benny asks the vampire in disbelief. "You got some balls, kid." </p><p>Vampires killed him, after all. <i>While</i> turning him, in fact, so he was just twisted enough to end up here instead of Heaven or Hell—not sure which he was going to, actually.</p><p>"I can lead you to the door out," the vampire says. Benny has no idea how old he is, but him showing up was enough to scare away the scavengers on Benny's trail, and his presence has kept the more dangerous monsters hanging back.</p><p>Which is worrisome. Benny got his fool self killed by underestimating a vampire that looked and acted young but was actually centuries old, and this vampire feels... like <i>more</i>, somehow. </p><p>The vampire smiles, slow and dangerous. "On your own, little hunter," he says, "you won't make it much longer. I can keep you safe all the way to the door you can't find without me, and all I ask is that you carry me out when you go." He spreads his hands, shrugs like a college student. </p><p>"Why do you want out?" Benny asks. He already knows he's going to agree because Andrea is waiting for him, and little Lizzie who must be almost 5, now. </p><p>The vampire shrugs again. "Got family, don't I?" he says. "Dumbass little brother who'll get himself killed trying to avenge me." </p><p>"But then you'll both be here," Benny points out. </p><p>The vampire gazes at him, face wiped clean of everything except <i>predator</i>. "Sammy's not ever coming here," he snarls. </p><p>"Okay, okay," Benny says placatingly. "You lead me to the door, I'll bring you with me." </p><p>"Okay then," the vampire says, smiling sunnily. "I'm Dean."</p><p>.</p><p>Benny doesn’t want to bring Dean or his brother to the Roadhouse, but it’s a compromise: Sam won’t touch Benny’s family if Benny will give him sacrifices. He almost likes Dean—working together to escape Purgatory does wonders for bonding. But Sam? Sam is terrifying in a way Benny hasn’t experienced, even after a decade of hunting. </p><p>He’d landed at Sam’s feet and Dean’s spirit riding him had rejoiced. It burned, Dean’s joy, like fire flooding his body. But Sam reached out a hand and Dean jumped to him, and Benny collapsed back onto the bloodied and muddied earth. As he caught his breath, he ignored the bodies all around him.</p><p>Because he didn’t know where he was or how long he’d been gone, he followed Sam. </p><p>Now, knowing that Sam would’ve tracked him down had he done otherwise, he’s relieved. Sam has some measure of gratitude towards Benny, and it’s the only reason he’s still alive. </p><p>So to keep Andrea and Lizzy safe, Benny is going to unleash a vampire and whatever the fuck Sam is on the hunter’s network, and then he’s going to run as fast and as far as he can. </p><p>“I won’t forget this, Lafitte,” Sam tells him, slumped in the back seat with Dean curled up on him. They look so <i>young</i> for what they are—if he didn’t know better, Benny could believe Dean had just turned 25 while Sam was still in college. Sam doesn’t even look fully grown, something still coltish about him; his hands and shoulders promise more height, more breadth. He’s not a vampire. Dean isn’t just a vampire, either. </p><p>“Just don’t hurt my family,” Benny says. “We’ll call it square.” </p><p>Sam smiles, he sees it in the rearview mirror, and he’s stroking along Dean’s back. “Take them and get out,” Sam says. “Stay out of our way.” </p><p>At the moment, that’s the sum of Benny’s plans.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Ellen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Benny!” Ellen says. “You haven’t been seen in a while. Word was you died.” Because of Bobby Singer and a witch friend of his, the Roadhouse has protections against most everything, so the word must’ve been wrong. </p><p>“Got caught up in somethin’,” Benny says, exchanging nods with a few of the boys as he makes his way to the bar. Behind him, there are two strangers, who look about Jo’s age. “This is Dean,” Benny says, clapping the shorter one on the back. “And his brother Sam,” with a nod to the younger one. “They helped me outta a tight spot.” He settles onto a stool, Dean beside him. Sam leans next to his brother and turns to survey the room. </p><p>“You boys seem mighty young to be huntin’,” Ellen says as she sets down a bottle of Benny’s favorite in front of him. “What’ll it be?” </p><p>Dean is the prettiest thing she’s seen in a long time and he smiles up at her so sweetly she <i>wants</i> like she hasn’t since Bill died. “I’ll take whatever you like best,” he drawls. “Sammy’ll take a Long Island Iced Tea.” </p><p>Sam scoffs but doesn’t say anything so she goes to get their drinks. </p><p>Benny leaves not long after, having made the rounds with the hunters he knows. Later, Ellen will remember that Benny actually told her <i>goodbye</i> instead saying he’d see her around. She didn’t notice it at the time, caught in a small battle of wills with Ash (she won, of course), and covertly watching as Dean and Sam sank into the far corner of the Roadhouse, each on their third drink. They were fascinating, and she couldn’t figure out why.</p><p>But eventually, as the night wears on, Ellen focuses back on the crowd, on her business, on the hunts she’ll be kicking to Bobby and Joshua in the morning.</p><p>When she thinks to look their way again, the boys are gone.</p><p>Word spreads about them, though.</p><p>At first, when the Winchester brothers team up with Gordon Walker, the word about them is good. They’re good hunters, good researchers, good with law enforcement and civilians. They don’t talk about how they got into hunting, or family, or sweethearts. And the way they orbit each other? It’s a bit more than brotherly, but that’s simple to put down as lovers trying to fly under the radar, and most hunters have more important things to worry about than where men stick it. </p><p>Gordon Walker, Martin Creaser, Travis Lea—they praise the Winchesters, so a reputation begins to build.</p><p>So at first, when hunters begin to go missing, well. It’s a dangerous gig. And Bobby’s friend put protections on the Roadhouse, wards against most everything.</p><p>The night it all ends, Ellen greets Dean and Sam with a smile. Dean regales everyone with a tale about a pair of sirens who nearly got the best of him and Sam, while Sam disappears down the hall after a murmured, “Hittin’ the head.” None of them, some of the best hunters in the country, think anything of it.</p><p>Dean’s grinning, basking in everyone’s attention, when Sam strikes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. and so it ends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“How many more?” Dean asks after Sam licks the blood from inside his mouth. </p><p>“Thirteen,” Sam answers, and he continues with hitches in his voice while Dean carefully cleans all the blood from his fingers. “Got-gotta be young, inno-innocent. Tie us together forever.” </p><p>Dean presses a kiss to Sam’s palm and smiles up at him. “Nothing’ll be able to separate us again? Hated Purgatory without you, Sammy.” </p><p>“Nothing,” Sam promises, leaning in, and Dean meets him with the same ferocity he did the first time, when everything was new.</p>
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